1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to point service systems and, more specifically, to point service systems for providing customers with various services over a network in accordance with their acquired points.
2. Description of the Background Art
Point services have been popularly offered by shops to their customers. The customers acquire points in accordance with their purchases, and their points are accumulated to exchange for any particular gifts. Such point services are varying in type, and the customers' acquired points may be recorded on point cards which are handed to the customers at whatever shop offering point services. The points may also be stored in a database on a customer basis, and the shops notify, as appropriate, their customers of how many points they have acquired so far.
With such point services, the customers have the merit of obtaining various gifts by regularly doing their shopping at specific shops. On the other hand, the shops can feel assured that their offering point services encourage customers to visit them again, leading to an increase in their sales.
Some point services set expiration dates. In such a case, once an expiration date has been passed, the corresponding points will be useless. Accordingly, if the expiration date is getting close, the customers feel prompted to make purchases at the corresponding shop to acquire some more points to exchange those for any desired gifts. This will also lead to an increase in sales.
Such conventional point services, however, do not work effectively enough if the customers make purchases at shops where they hardly visit, during a trip, for example. If the resultant points are not enough to exchange for any gifts, the points will be wasted.
Moreover, as to point services with expiration dates set, the points will be also wasted if there are not enough, even a few points, to exchange for any desired gifts before their expiration date. If the customers do not want to waste their points, they have no choice but to exchange those for any other gift available for the points. If there is no available gift, the points will be totally wasted.